Elmira School - Elmira, ID, USA
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 48° 28.805 W 116° 27.800
11U E 539660 N 5369800
We spied this little school while travelling between Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint on Highway 95. We're unsure of the original name of the school, though it was likely the Elmira School. The nearest community of any type is Elmira.
Waymark Code: WMWYCA
Location: Idaho, United States
Date Posted: 10/29/2017
Views: 2
The school stands on the west side of Highway 95 about 3 miles south of McArthur Lake. The old wooden sign over the front porch reads Dist. No. 16 1910. The "16" covers a previous number, indicating a number change in the school district during the school's lifetime.
The building itself was built of a mixture of smooth and rusticated concrete blocks on a concrete foundation. The side walls are each supported by four concrete buttresses. Atop the walls is a steel clad gable roof with wooden shiplap sided gable ends. On the roof's peak at the front is a small bell tower with lattice work vents. The bell tower is not in very good shape any more.
Inside there is a cloakroom/hall at the front which leads left and right to the entrances to the two small school rooms. If it was actually used as a two room school, each room would have been pretty small.
The little town of Elmira stood across the highway in the early 1900s, a small mill and railroad town. The first school was a hand hewn log school, built sometime around 1900.
